OASIS Announces Technical Committee Work to Define a Universal Business Language (UBL).

OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards) has announced a member-initiated Universal Business Language (UBL) Technical Committee formed "to define a common XML business document library. UBL will provide a set of XML building blocks and a framework that will enable trading partners to unambiguously identify and exchange business documents in specific contexts. Uniting disparate efforts underway by companies and standards groups around the world, the OASIS UBL Technical Committee intends to enhance and harmonize overlapping XML business libraries and similar technologies to advance consensus on an international standard. [According to] Jon Bosak of Sun Microsystems, and chair of the OASIS UBL Technical Committee: 'Agreement on a common set of XML business-to-business document standards is essential for successful electronic commerce; our goal in creating UBL is to quickly develop a synthesis of existing XML business libraries using the OASIS open collaborative process.' UBL work will begin with xCBL 3.0 as the starting point and to develop the standard UBL library by mutually agreed-upon changes to xCBL 3.0 based on industry experience with other XML business libraries and with similar technologies such as Electronic Data Interchange." OASIS is a non-profit, international consortium that creates interoperable industry specifications based on public standards such as XML and SGML, as well as others that are related to structured information processing.

From the TC web site:

The purpose of the UBL TC is to quickly develop a standard XML business library by taking an already existing library as a starting point and modifying it to incorporate the best features of other existing XML business libraries. The TC will then design a mechanism for the generation of context-specific business schemas through the application of transformation rules to the common UBL source library.

As currently envisioned, the UBL work will take place in two phases: (1) A first phase to align the vocabulary and structures of UBL with the work of the Joint Core Components initiative and with the vocabulary and structures of other already existing business libraries such as RosettaNet and OAGIS. (2) A second phase to implement a mechanism for the generation of context-specific schemas for basic business documents and their components through the application of transformation rules to a common XML source library.

Principal references:

Announcement 2001-10-17: "OASIS Members Form Technical Committee to Develop Universal Business Language. Companies Unite on International Standard for XML-Based Electronic Business Documents."